Only Fools and Horses star David Jason’s quiet private life off screen aged 86

Sir David Jason is a firmly established national treasure, best known for his iconic portrayal of Derek “Del Boy” Trotter in the 1980s BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses opposite Nicholas Lyndhurst’s Rodney.

Alongside his Only Fools role, David also played the iconic Granville in Open All Hours, Detective Inspector Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost and even voiced the character of Mr Toad in The Wind in the Willows.

While you may know everything about David’s TV career, which earned him an OBE in 1993 and later a knighthood bestowed by the late Queen Elizabeth II for his services to acting and comedy in 2005, how much do you know about the actor’s life off-screen? 

Read on for all the details, including his quiet life with his wife of 30 years, a heartbreaking loss and a surprise daughter…

David Jason’s quiet life off-screen

Known for his perfect cockney accent that forever immortalised the line, “Rodney, you plonker!”, David is actually from Edmonton, North London, where he was born in 1940. His birth name is David John White and he was actually born a twin, but his brother sadly passed away at birth. His older brother, Arthur White, is also an actor.

While his parents worked in traditionally working-class jobs – his father was a porter and his mother was a household cleaner – David expressed hopes of following in Arthur’s footsteps and becoming an actor, but was encouraged by his father to find a more traditional trade. After training as an electrician for six years, he eventually pursued acting full-time.

© Radio Times via Getty Images

David Jason’s personal loss 

Jason was in a long-term relationship with The Magnificent Evans actress Myfanwy Talog, whom he met through a mutual friend in 1977. After 18 happy years together, however, their lives changed dramatically when Myfanwy was diagnosed with breast cancer and, despite undergoing treatment, she sadly passed away in 1995 aged 50.

Reflecting on her final days, which she spent in a hospice, Jason told The Guardian in 2013: “Amazingly, just hours before she died she asked for a pen and paper, and wrote down a list of gifts she wished dispersed to relatives after her death. She had woken up to do that. It was as if she knew it was on its way. I drew comfort from that – perhaps not then. But since.”

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Who is David Jason married to now?

Still recovering from his loss, David met production assistant Gill Hinchcliffe in the mid-1990s. “At that time, the idea that we would start a relationship would have struck us both as unlikely,” David told The Guardian. “She was 20 years younger, we were living in different parts of the country, and I was still numb with grief.” 

However, after working together on shows like A Touch of Frost, their relationship developed into a romance. While the pair like to keep their private life away from the spotlight, they quietly welcomed their daughter, Sophie Mae, in March 2001 – when David was 61.

© Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty I

Four years later, in 2005, the couple tied the knot at the Dorchester Hotel on the evening before David received his knighthood. He reflected on the “blissful” 24 hours, saying: “We’d often spoken about it, but could never come up with a plan that wouldn’t create a fuss. The investiture solved our problem and obliged us to act because Gill wasn’t keen on going to the palace as an unmarried mother.”

A surprise discovery 

Nearly two decades later, in March 2023, David discovered that he was also the father of another daughter. He learned via a paternity test that he shared a daughter, Abi Harris, with actress Jennifer Hill (Human Traffic, Softly Softly), with whom he had a brief relationship in 1970.

Speaking to The Mirror about the news, David reflected: “To say it was a surprise to find out I had a daughter from years ago is an understatement.” However, after absorbing the results, David was “delighted” to get to know Abi, 55, and revealed he meets up with her when he can. 

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“My wife, Gill, and daughter, Sophie, have been very supportive and understanding and have embraced Abi and welcomed her and her young son into her now wider family,” he added.